Running for governor is a big decision with big rewards

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Sunday January 13, 2013 6:35 AM

It is not difficult to imagine the thoughts that keep Ed FitzGerald awake at night as he lies
next to Shannon, his wife of 21 years, in the bedroom of their Lakewood home, just down the hall
from their four kids, searching for answers in the darkness.

Anyone who has ever considered running for governor has the same thoughts, the same haunting
questions, knowing that answers come only at the end, when it’s too late to turn back, leaving the
decision to be vindicated or damned on a single fateful day, Election Day.

Ultimately, though, the only decision to be regretted more than defeat is the one not to run at
all.

These nights, Ed FitzGerald is lying awake, his mind tortured by one “yes, but ...” conflict
after another as he plows through the scenarios he must review to answer the question: Do I really
want to do this?

Do I really want to spend the next 21 months on the road away from Shannon and the kids,
traveling to faraway counties to eat rubber chicken with people I don’t know, glad-handing until it
hurts, fighting through fatigue to inspire, wearing an omnipresent smile that doesn’t appear
plastic?

Do I really want to spend the next 21 months begging for the $20 million, $25 million, $30 m
illion — God only knows how much it might take to defeat John Kasich — and somehow not offend the
scions and scallywags who will be disappointed when I tell them to expect nothing but an honest
effort in return for their contributions?

Do I really want to spend the next 21 months having every aspect of my life, my family’s life,
probed and laid bare, attacked and exploited by paid operatives who really don’t know me, and who
care only about embarrassing me and winning the day politically, one interminable day after the
next until it’s finally Election Day?

Can I possibly supply the nuance the press will demand on every conceivable issue, or answer
questions without riling this constituency or that?

How can I do justice to my job, Cuyahoga County executive, and run for governor? Is it better to
roll the dice on a difficult race to become Ohio’s chief executive in 2014 or go for another
four-year term — a virtual sure thing — as the top elected official of Ohio’s largest county, a job
that pays $31,000 a year more than the governor’s?

I am a former FBI agent, assistant county prosecutor and Lakewood mayor. I am the first elected
head of a county governmental system that voters created in 2009 to purge corruption from the
county’s previous government, and I have brought efficacy and restored trust while avoiding any
taint of scandal.

And yet, I wonder: At 44, am I ready to be governor of the nation’s seventh-largest state, to
look after the well-being of 11 million citizens, to be wise steward of a $26 billion annual
budget? Can I possibly cajole a bitterly divided legislature to eschew ideology and stay focused on
the people’s business?

Am I up to this job? And even if I decide that I am, can I beat a well-financed Republican
incumbent — one who can point to a solid record of job growth and progress, and who polls show is
garnering growing approval from voters for his performance, gathering momentum heading toward
2014?

Such are the thoughts that keep Ed FitzGerald awake at night, and such are the questions he soon
must answer, because Ohio Democratic leaders seem poised to anoint him as the party’s candidate for
governor unless another party star, Grove City’s Richard Cordray, soon signals whether he’s
interested.

Someone with FitzGerald’s resume and who has a 70 percent approval rating in Ohio’s biggest
county, and who constantly is on TV in Ohio’s largest media market — home to 39 percent of the
state’s voters — doesn’t come along for a party every election.

I have covered five Ohio governors, and every one of them, including Kasich, has said that being
governor is the best job they’ve ever had. Few other jobs afford the opportunity to do so much good
for so many people.

Before they were governors, those five variously laid awake at night, searching for answers in
the darkness, plowing through the “yes, but ...” circumstances of their lives.